Mapping Interventions for NEET young people in England (MINE)
Overview
This longitudinal research project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, aims to understand the nature and scope of early intervention programmes targeted at young people ‘at risk’ of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training). It will provide the first comprehensive national picture of early intervention provision focusing specifically on the typology of intervention, target groups and prediction tools used to identify young people at risk. Both short and longer term outcomes for young people will be recorded to explore the factors that make particular interventions effective. Additionally, it will foreground the voices of young people accessing provision using a longitudinal ethnographic approach. This will provide an understanding of how their experiences of early interventions connect with previous school experience and later experiences of education and the labour market.
Methods
This is a three stage mixed methods research project comprising of a mapping phase, a school based data collection phase and a post-16 data collection phase. Data will be generated with research participants in six social sites of investigation across England using an ethnographic approach. This will involve semi structured interviews with young people, observations and extensive fieldnotes. The views of key stakeholders will be gathered through semi-structured interviews.
Outcomes
Findings from the project can be accessed through this webpage. We will provide regular updates here and a newsletter (click here to join our mailing list), journal articles, a monograph and an international conference in 2026.
Find out more about the research outputs and associated activities on the project page on the Huddersfield Research Portal.
The research team
Professor Lisa Russell
Principal Investigator (PI)
Dr Ron Thompson
Co-investigator (CoI)
Dr Katherine Davey
Senior Research Fellow
Dr Jo Bishop
Senior Lecturer
Image competition
Young people with experience of being NEET were invited to enter a competition to develop an image depicting what it felt like. A prize for the competition was generously provided by Oxford Ethnography and Education. The two paintings by the winning artist, aged 18, and her own words, illustrate how she felt whilst NEET and how her perspective has changed since attending a support programme.
Left
It’s a tough piece. I have a love/hate relationship with it because I like it, but I hate what it is. It’s like it’s messy on purpose, everything was a mess. It’s a bit muddy on purpose, because, you know, I don’t really know what I’m doing, and no one really did. Everything was tough. I don’t know, there’s just so much like weighing me down and holding me back from actually trying things.
Right
This is a happier piece, it’s a better piece. It’s me coming to terms with the fact that, you know, sometimes things wear you down. You know, she’s still chained down, she’s still suffering, but she’s, you know, she’s embracing it a bit more. Even though there’s still, you know, that darkness, or that sadness, and whatever, she’s still striving to do better and be a better person.
Advisory Board
- Danielle Choma
Service Manager – Schools Partnerships, West Yorkshire Combined Authority | Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) - Dawn Gothard
Team Manager, Wakefield Youth Support Hub, Wakefield Council - Andrew Marsh
Head of Employment and Skills, Derbyshire County Council - Fay McIntosh
Area Operations Manager, C&K Careers - Karin Porter
Participation & Transitions Strategy Manager, Norfolk County Council - Dr Emily Murphy
Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick - Andrew Lancashire
Service Director - Education and Inclusion, Wakefield Council
Huddersfield Research Portal
Read about the activities and research outputs associated with the project on the Huddersfield Research Portal.
Funded by a Research Project Grant from the Leverhulme Trust (2021-26)
Ref: RPG-2021-144
